Singapore, 2 April 2025 – To help financial firms prevent fraud attempts on their companies and customers, FS-ISAC, the member-driven, not-for-profit organisation that advances cybersecurity and resilience in the global financial system, has published Leveling Up: A Cyber Fraud Prevention Framework for Financial Services.
The Framework provides an actionable model to strengthen collaboration between cybersecurity, fraud, financial crime, and anti-money laundering (AML) teams. Organisations can leverage the Framework’s fraud response protocol to identify vulnerabilities earlier in the attack lifecycle, enhancing threat visibility and strengthening fraud controls.
“The interconnectedness of fraud and cyber threats is intensifying, and financial firms cannot afford for their internal teams to operate in silos,” said Linda Betz, Executive Vice President of Global Community Engagement, FS-ISAC. “This structured approach to information sharing and collaboration empowers teams to identify and disrupt cyber fraud schemes. This helps financial firms strengthen their collective defences as well as safeguard the reputation and financial assets of the sector.”
The Framework breaks the lifecycle of a cyber-fraud attack, i.e., fraud conducted on cyber channels, into five phases:
- Reconnaissance: Threat actors gather intelligence, set up infrastructure, and plan for attempted fraud.
- Initial Access: Attackers gain a foothold for fraud against a consumer, financial services institution, or other entity, such as a third-party vendor.
- Positioning: Threat actors manipulate account information, credentials, or payment details to prepare for fraud execution.
- Execution: Stolen data is monetised through unauthorised transactions or fraudulent fund transfers.
- Monetisation: The stolen funds are transferred to the threat actor.
These phases give teams a common language to share fraud information, enabling them to coordinate their activities. The Frameworks suggests firms analyse fraud from multiple angles to pinpoint vulnerabilities and deploy controls earlier in the fraud lifecycle.
“The Cyber Fraud Prevention Framework is crucial for enhancing our team’s ability to prevent, detect, and respond to fraud, marking significant progress in the cyber fraud domain,” added Dave Daniel, Vice President of Cybersecurity Operations, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company.
By unifying teams, leveraging intelligence at every attack stage, and implementing targeted fraud controls, organisations can uncover the origins of an attack and anticipate future fraudulent activity before schemes are fully executed. The Framework also provides recommendations on how to effectively share fraud intel with peer firms to strengthen the defences of the entire financial sector.
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